We watched The Maleficent the opening night and loved the movie. We probably loved it even more because we watched it on the opening night in no better place than on the Disney Cruise! As soon as the movie was over my little girl said to me, “I want a Maleficent birthday party mama!” First of all, when they call me mama with their cute little voice, it’s hard for me to resist. And second of all, I started thinking of all the ideas for the party in my head and got so excited. So Maleficent party it was for my daughter’s 7th birthday! I used Maleficent & Aurora character invitations from MariusDesigns and it couldn’t be more perfect.

My birthday girl wanted to be Aurora for Halloween so I thought we will have her birthday party the day after Halloween. A terrible idea. Haha, because it was the busiest week of my life preparing for costumes and the birthday party at the same time. But it turned our really well and Aurora couldn’t be happier.

my husband wanted to take a picture copying a photo of Diaval and Maleficent below and from a guy who never ever suggests picture taking? I’ll take it!

Our whole family dressed up for the birthday party and invited the guests to dress up as well. I didn’t want all the focus to be on Maleficent so I made sure many things were of Aurora such as the Aurora silhouette that I just drew and cut from a black cardboard paper and put on a baroque frame I got from Ikea that I spray painted in black, and the Aurora cupcake toppers that matched perfectly with the baroque frame. I set the backdrop with the black wall tree decal on a white butcher paper and added a finishing touch by adding a black paper chandelier(I plan on using the wall decal, frame and the chandelier for the girls’ room decor after) and a Maleficent cake topper. I wanted the table setting to match the backdrop of the tree forest so the plates & stands were all made out of wood, including the wooden candles. This was the first party where I didn’t make the food and provided pizza from Sam’s Club on two gold glitter tree stumps, my daughter wanted a Oreo dessert bar since that’s her favorite so we had an Oreo ice-cream cake, and fruit tray, and a veggie tray displayed on 3 wood cake stands, Oreo cookies on wood cupcake stands, and Oreo pudding. The drink was milk poured in vintage milk bottles. I only needed to make the Oreo pudding and it was so nice! I might just buy food for future birthday parties from now on. 🙂

For games we played “Find raven’s rainbow eggs” where some eggs were stuffed with candy. They had to get at least 5 eggs or get an egg with a candy in order to receive a Maleficent prize which consisted of a Maleficent and/or Aurora bottle-cap necklace, a Maleficent mirror, and some candies. They were so excited for this game and they kept asking when we were going egg hunting so this was a big hit with the kids. Then we had a photo shoot using Maleficent props, and we just scooted the food table to the hallway and used the party backdrop as the backdrop for the photobooth. I told my husband to think of one game we could play for the party(since I did everything else for the party) but the day came and I asked him if he thought of anything and he said no. I told him he had 2 hours to think of a game and when the party started and I asked him again, he said no. So I had planned to play 3 games but we only played 2 games. Oh, husband. You’re so lucky you’re such a good husband and a father and make it up in so many other areas. 🙂

We finished the party with opening presents and singing happy birthday to the birthday girl and eating the Oreo ice-cream cake. When the parents came to pick up their children, they didn’t want to leave! I think it’s safe to say they had a fun time at the party.

*I have never collaborated with shops before for any of our kids’ birthday parties but I thought it’d be a great way where both parties benefit from it so I contacted some Etsy shops for the collaboration. I especially love working with Etsy companies because they’re usually smaller businesses, many of them women and men with a smaller audience and there’s something very charming and unique about these shops. I charge companies when they want to be featured on my blog but when I contact Etsy shops, I don’t ask for any compensation but only for products for me to feature on the blog because I want to help these small businesses. So a big thank you to all these amazing Etsy shops for making this party all come together!

yes, I matched my dress to the event, especially the snowflake backdrop. For real, I really did! 😉

What little girl doesn’t love Frozen? But my daughter Ana loves it even more because she has the same name as the Princess! I let my children pick out the theme every time and this year for her 5th birthday, Ana chose the theme Frozen.

Everyone received a simple invitation{free printable here}, and when the party started and the guests were arriving, a table was set with a plethora of Frozen coloring pages for them to color. I printed out a ton of variety of all the characters from the movie, probably 20 different kinds to accommodate the boys as well{click here, here, and here to get the free coloring pages}. After the kids were done coloring, we made snowmen using regular sized and mini marshmallows, mini m&m’s, skewers and toothpicks, rolos and mini oreos, and chocolate frosting{adapted the hat idea from here}. Then they got to eat it and afterwards we played pin the Olaf’s nose. I purchased a white poster paper and drew Olaf with a black permanent marker and Ana helped me color it. I cut out carrot shaped nose for each guest and put double sided tape on the back. Each guest was blind folded and spun 10 times before being set free to pin Olaf’s nose. One pinned the brick wall instead, one went inside the house and pinned the nose on the table, and one guest pinned the nose on my butt! Everyone thought that was so hilarious and the kids couldn’t stop laughing! We then had treats of snowmen treats{free printables here}, powdered donuts representing the body of the snowman, mini m&m’s for the buttons and the eyes, pretzel sticks representing the arms, and baby carrots representing the nose, and melted snowman water bottle(free printable here}, hot chocolate bar with homemade whipped cream, candy cane sticks, and variety of chocolate dipped spoons(you melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 sec. increments, and when it’s smooth and melted, dip the plastic spoon in the bowl and top it with toppings such as marshmallows, crushed candy cane, chocolate chips. do the same for caramel dipped spoons). After the guests ate, we did one last activity of crystal painting{mix equal amounts of epsom salt and hot water, dip the painbrush in it and use it like paint! when it dries it will crystallize. It’s mess-free and the kids loved it!}. We finished the party with the birthday cake{ordered from Macey’s grocery store} and opening the presents.

The cost of the birthday party:

-Printables: $2.34 (free printable, then used Sam’s club to print out 18 prints of 4×6 photo at 13 cents each)

-Birthday cake: $23 (from Macey’s grocery store)

-Table setting: $4 (2 table covers, one from the dollar store, one from Party City)

-Snow flakes back drop: $3 (used the snowflakes I already had from the dollar store, white paper, and silver wrapping paper)

-Hot chocolate bar: $13

-Building snowman with candy activity: $15

-Epsom salt painting activity: $10

-Pin the Olaf activity: $3

-Treats: $16

-Photography: free(I took all the photos)

TOTAL: $89.34

I set a budget of $100 for all of my kids’ birthday parties, and while I went a little bit over last year for my daughter’s Power Ranger birthday party, I was under the budget this year by $10. We had 18 of Ana’s friends over, so this was a party for 20 kids for under $90!

We had a chef birthday party, requested by my 6 year old birthday girl. We kept it small & intimate and invited some of her friends from school. Each kid received a chef hat upon entering the party and we went straight to cooking! They rolled out their pizza dough and got to put their own toppings on their pizza, and while we waited for the pizza to bake, we played games and played outside. After eating their pizza, they each received their own cakes to decorate and take home! I made an oreo ice-cream cake, Adi’s favorite cake in the world which is so easy to make(oreo pie crust + oreo ice-cream + whip cream + oreos on top), and finished the party with opening the presents.

Being the lover of party planning, I wanted to make an apron for each child with a matching fabric chef hat, but I knew it’d be too much for me to handle right now, so I didn’t. And you know what? I am so glad I didn’t. I’m a huge fan of simplifying life lately and saying no when needed(which is really really hard for me), but I’m getting better and I’m pretty proud of myself!

Happy birthday my intelligent and kind-hearted 6 year old girl. I love you forever.

Our girls have been into Power Rangers as of late so it was no surprise when Ana asked for a Power Ranger birthday party. I’ve always told my daughters that there are no such thing as “girl toys” or “boy toys”, and if you like playing with trucks or tools, go right ahead. If you like princesses and dolls, go right ahead also. I tell them to not let anyone tell you what’s weird or appropriate to play with if that’s what you’re interested in. So I was more than happy to plan this birthday party for Ana.

After everyone ate lunch, we started a Power Ranger training camp. There were 5 training courses, each course representing a member of the Power Ranger and their strength/talent. In order to become an official Power Ranger, they had to complete each course.

Training course #1 was STRENGTH which is the green Power Ranger, and they had to compete in a tug of war to prove their strength.

I forgot to take pictures of the next two signs because I was too busy running the party but training #2 was LOYALTY which is the blue Power Ranger, and a bad samurai came to the party to recruit any bad
guys/girls to join his team. All the trainees had to prove their loyalty and pick which side they were on. Fortunately, they all picked my side(the good side of course;), and threw water balloons at the bad samurai to chase him away.

his appearance alone made two little girls cry and they wanted to go home. oops….

he would catch some of the water balloons and kept throwing them at me! bad samurai!

but in the end we conquered.

Training #3 was LEADERSHIP which is the red Power Ranger, and for this game we played Simon Says.

Training #4 was POWER which is the yellow Power Ranger and a sensei came and taught the trainees some karate moves. He had a little helper too.

Training #5 was LOVE which is the pink Power Ranger, and not pictured, but for this course they had to complete an obstacle course. They had to climb under a chair, then grab a ball that was sitting on the chair which they had to kick or hold while they ran to the trampoline. Once they got to the trampoline, they had to jump as high as they could 10 times, then climb up and down two slides in a row, then run to the kitty pools that were filled with water floating with many “bad guys”. There was one “good guy” that was drowning in the water and they had to find it and save it by scooping it up with a net.

after they completed the training camp, each trainee received a Power Ranger certificate, a sword & a belt.

then time for some cupcakes!

For the kids birthday parties I always set a budget of $100, and I went $30 over the budget with this party due to the high number of attendees(every single person we invited came to celebrate with us, all 15 of them!). But I tell myself since I bought bulks of ingredients to make the food and snacks at Sam’s Club with lots of left over ingredients that we will use, it winds down to roughly $100. 😉

Ana’s sister Adi told me after the party that for her birthday party she wants a yellow Power Ranger birthday party. So I might be doing this same exact party all over again, but in yellow!

*disclaimer: I googled “power ranger certificate” and found an image that I just printed for the certificate and the training camp signs my husband made with Photoshop. I no longer send the certificate because I have no copyright of the image and feel dishonest if I send it out. I get emails frequently about this and I had to turn down every single one, so please understand and I apologize about that!

we had adalie’s 4th birthday party over the weekend. the theme was a “mermaid: under the sea”, requested by the birthday girl herself. princess ariel came and paid a visit and all the little girls invaded ariel’s personal bubble the whole time from the moment ariel walked into the house until the moment she left. they just loved her and smothered her all over! ariel read a story to them, sang some songs, made princess crowns with them, and taught etiquette on how to be a true princess. one of my favorites moments of the party was when ariel finished the little mermaid storybook and ended with, “and they lived happily ever after.” and one of adalie’s friends yelled out, “just like the three pigs!” my other favorite moment was seeing adalie hop around in her mermaid fin that she wanted me to make for her birthday. she refused to take it off and just hopped around as if she was in a potato sack race. it was pretty darn cute.i think it’s safe to say all the girls had a lot of fun at the party, especially the birthday girl.

*for the treats i used a rice krispies on a stick recipe, dipped pretzel sticks in chocolate and sprinkles, blended graham crackers for the sand and put gold chocolate coins in a star shaped bowl, made blue raspberry jello and stuck swedish fish in the jello and topped it with an umbrella, and used a towering sand castle cake recipe and added mermaid dolls and white chocolate sea shells and starfish i made using a mold. and we hired ariel from a party company called pirate & princess parties.

Hello! My name is Sarah and I am so happy to have you here! Here you'll find DIY sewing, DIY home building & decor, honest and vulnerable posts of motherhood and snippets of my family. We are building our dream house and will update you regularly on our whole process from start to finish and I am also starting a mother-daughter sewing series. So I hope you stay awhile!

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